Apparatus for simultaneously making sugar and paper pulp from cane



Oct. 23, 1928. 1,688,905

' E. A. VAZQUEZ APPARATUS FOR SIMULTANEOUSLY MAKING SUGAR AND FAPER PULP FROM CANE Original Filed Aug. 5 1927 Paper Pu/p x a u;

INVENTOR jf/f zfa/i/o fizy z BY a M M Mamd$ Mm ATTORNEY Patented Oct. 23, 1928.

1,688,905 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

EUGENIO ANTONIO VAZQ UEZ, OF HABANA, CUBA, ASSIGNOR TO VAZCANE PROCESS, INC.., A. CORPORATION OF DELAWARE.

APPARATUS FOR SIMULTANEOUSLY MAKING SUGAR AND PAPER PULP FROM CARI.

Original application filed August 30, 1927, Serial Ne.

application filed April 3,

This invention relates to an apparatus and combination of apparatus for the treatment of vegetable tissues'such as sugar-cane 1n accordance with the process of my copendmg application Serial No. 216,348, filed August 30, 1927 whereby the soluble products and the cellulose of the plant tissue are recovered in forms suited to subsequent manufacturmg processes. This application for the apparatus is made separately in compliance w th the requirement for divisionof said appllcatlon Serial No. 216,348.

In the production of sugar, particularly from sugar-cane, it has heretofore been the usual practice to tear or crush the cane into shreds and then to pass the shredded cane between heavy rolls by which the saccharine juices are squeezed out of the plant tissues These rolls are of cast iron, weighing frequently as high as fifteen tons each; and the cane is passed successively through several sets of such rolls adjusted progressively closer together.

In some cases it has been the practice to add water to the cane just prior to passing it through some of the rolls. This dilutes any juice remaining in the cane and facilitates its removal.

It has also been suggested to shred the cane and then after thoroughly drying it to saturate it with water, which is later pressed out carrying with it a largev part of the sugars. Another method which has been proposed is to slice or-granulate the cane and remove the sugar by a difiusion' process.

In all of these processes the pieces of cane must be large enough to permit ready diffusion of the water generally about one quarter inch,and the residue is in the form of a coarse stringy mass commercially known as bagasse. This bagasse has been generally regarded as a waste product and burned in the steam plant of the sugar mill.

However, in recent years, due to the diminishing supply of forest wood, considerable attention has been attracted to bagasse as a raw material for the manufacture of paper pulp. Although much research has been conducted and many plans have been proposed for making paper from bagasse, none has been attended with great commercial success. So far as I am aware, the only important commercial utilization of bagasse is in the production of insulating wallboard, in

216,348, and in Cuba June 2, 1927. Divided and this 1928. Serial No. 267,036

which, after a special preliminary treatment, the coarse filaments of the bagasse are pressed into a loose felt. The filaments of this board are not to be confused with the fibers or fiber aggregates of a paper pulp, but resemble more closely blades of dry grass or hay.

I have discovered that by the employment of the apparatus hereinafter described and claimed, I am able to recover sugar from the sugar-cane more completely than has heretofore been considered possible, and at the same time to produce a cellulose pulp in a form which is well adapted for the production of paper, board and other paper pulp or cellulose products.

This apparatus consists, briefly, in means for separating the cane by grinding or abradlng it into individual fibers or aggregates of relatively few fibers so small as to be unsuitable for any of the prior recovery. In combination with this I use a solvent bath in which the comminuted material is dispersed and agitated until the solvent is thoroughly worked into the fibers, the solvent-pr more accurately, the sugar solution-is then separated from the comminuted cane and the latter redispersed in a second bath. In this bath the material is again agimethods of sugarv tated in the same manner as in the first, after weak solution separated from each bath becomes the solvent liquid for another until in the initial bath it isremoved as relatively concentrated sugar solution and taken to the boiling house.

The fibers of this pulp. product, since they have not been sub1ected to the injurious crushing action of the usual sugar mill, are stronger and altogether more desirable than fibers which have been produced from bagasse and having been substantially separated they are in a condition suitable for the manufacture of paper or board. i

I have also found that when my invention is followed a considerable economy in power effected, since I eliminate entirely the use of crushing rolls and shredders.

In the practice of invention I prefer to use a combination of apparatus such as T have shown in the accompanying diagrammatic drawing. Each element of this com bination is an apparatus already well known to the art. However, I believe myself to be the first to use such apparatus in the present combination, and I believe that the process,

I as well as the product, resulting from the use is a grindstone 2 running in a receptacle 3 containing a bath of solvent liquid. Conse' quently the operation of the grindstone will cause the solution to be carried to the cane and cause the grinding to take place in a substantial amount of liquid. This apparatus will be recognized as a magazine grinder known to the art of making wood pulp. The magazine 1 is shaped adjacent to the stone 2, so that, as the latter revolves, the cane is crowded against the stone and held from passing through to the receptacle 3. In this way, the individual fibers or fiber aggregates are torn away from the cane and distributed into the liquid bath, producing a pulp resembling mechanicaPwood pulp or ground wood. This pulp passes directly to an agitator or mixing box 4,or may first be screened to remove larger pieces of cane which may have found their way into the pulp. An agitator blade 5 in the mixer maintains the pulp in suspension.

The overflow from the mixing box 4 passes into a separator 6, which in the present case 15 shown as a pulp thickener, well known in the paper making art. In this form of separator a cylindrical screen 7 revolves par tially submerged in the pulp so that the water, or liquid, passes through the screen and is drawn off through the opening 8, while the solid portion of the pulp is deposited on the screen, carried out of the bath and scraped by the doctors 9 into a second mixing box 4. The pipe 10 discharges the weak sugar solution from a subsequent separator 6 into this mixing box. Any number of separators and mixing boxes may be used according to the nature of the material being treated and the conditions. such as the temperature of the water and the velocity of the passage through the apparatus.

Into the last mixing box fresh water is directed from the pipe 11, and from the first separator the strong sugar solution is discharged through the pipe 12 to the sugar boiling house. The liquid from the second separator is .conducted through the pipe 10 to the grinder 2, where it is sprayeduniformly over the surface of the grindstone. The pulp from the last separator is discharged into the conduit 13. from whence it is taken directly to,

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a paper making plant or to a machine where it is made into pulp lap for shipment. The

counter-current washing of'the finely divided vegetable material is enhanced by the successive separations of the pulp from the liquid. This repeated separation and redistribution of the water through and into the fibers, thereby dissolving all of the sugar, while the mechanical treatment to which the material is thus subjected produces a further separa- .any other units which accomplish similar results.

I have found in practice using the process and apparatus described above that it is possible to obtain almost complete extraction with only thirty percent dilution of the natural juice content of the cane. This 'is materially less than is required, for example, in the continuous diffusion apparatus now used in the best sugar industry. Since all of the.

water must be evaporated, it is evidently important to reduce to a minimum the amount of water added during the extraction of sugar from the cane.

I believe that this increased efiiciency is in a large part due to the reduction of cane to minute particles-aggregates of relatively few fibers each. Because of this thorough separation, every cell of the plant tissue is exposed to the leaching action of the solvent and a substantially complete extraction of the sugar takes place. In the accompanying claims I have used the term fibers to define this separation into individual fibers or aggregates of relatively few fibers and to distinguish from the shredding and separation into relatively coarse filaments as known to the prior art.

It is preferable in the leaching process to use as solvent only distilled water. A'cheap source of distilled water for this purpose is found in the condensed vapors from the evaporators in the sugar house. In this way all unnecessary impurities, which might be introduced with the solvent. are avoided and the sugar refining sin'lplifiod to that extent.

It has heretoforcbeen thought necessary when preparing bagasse for paper making to separate the pith from the fibers of the cane. I have found, however, that when the cane is treated by my novel apparatus this is unnecessary and a good grade pulp is produced utilizing all of the cellulose contained in the cane. The fiberless cellulose may even llu ' minuted condition of the pulp.

I claim:

1. An apparatus for preparing su ar-cane for the recovery of sugar and fiber pu p which comprises an abrasive surface moving in contact with the sugar-cane whereby the sugarcane is separated into fibers, and a source of liquid for wetting said abrasive surface.

'2. An apparatus for preparing sugar-cane for the recovery of sugar and fiber pulp which comprises an abrasive surface moving in contact with the sugar-cane whereby the sugarcane is separated into fibers, and a liquid bath throu h which said abrasive surface passes.

3. in apparatus for preparing sugar-cane for the recovery of sugar and fiber pulp which comprises an abrasive surface moving in contact with the sugar-cane whereby the sugarcane is separated into fibers, a liquid bath ,through which said abrasive surface passes,

the abrasive surface being arranged to move through the cane. whereby the fibers are carried out of the cane into the liquid bath, means for feeding the sugar-cane to said abrasive surface, and means for collecting the fibers in the liquid bath.

4. An apparatus for the recovery of sugar and fiber pulp from sugar-cane which comprises an abrasive surface moving in contact with the sugar-cane whereby the sugar-cane is separated into fibers, a container for a bath of sugar solvent through which said abrasive surface passes, said abrasive surface being arran ed to move through the sugar-cane where y Y the fibers are carried out of the sugar-cane into the bath of sugar solvent, and means for separating the sugar solution from the fiber pulp.

5. An apparatus for the recovery of sugar and fiber pulp from sugar-cane which com prises an abrasive surface moving in contact with thesugar-cane whereby the sugar-cane is separated into fibers, a plurality of means for repeatedly separating the fiber pulp from the sugar solution and subjecting it to the sugar solution, and means for conducting the sugar solution through said fiber pulp, beginning at the zone wherein the fiber pulp is last extracted and ending in the zone where in the fiber pulp is first extracted.

6. In combination with the ap aratus of claim 5, means for a itating the fibers in the sugar solution to e eat more complete extraction of sugar and more complete separation of fibers.

' 7. In combination with the apparatus of claim 5, means for diverting the sugar solvent from an intermediate point in its course through said fiber pulp and conducting it to the abrasive surface, and means for conducting the sugar solvent back to its course throu h said fiber pulp,

. 8. in apparatus for the recovery of sugar and fiber pulp from sugar-cape which comprisesabrasive means for abrading the sugarcane into fibers, means for distributing the abraded material in a sugar solvent, and means for separating the resulting solution from the fiber pulp.

9. An apparatus for the recovery of sugar and fiber pulp from sugar-cane which comprises abrasive means for abrading the sugarcane into fibers, means for distributing the abraded material in a sugar solvent, and means for separating the resulting solution from the fiber pulp, said separating means being adapted to efi'ect furtherseparation, of the fibers from one another.

10. An apparatus for the recovery of sugar and fiber pulp from sugar-cane which comprises abrasive means for abrading the sugarcane into fibers, means for distributing and agitating the abraded material in a sugar solvent, and means for separating the resulting solution from the fiber pulp.

11. An apparatus for recovering sugar and fiber pulp from sugar-cane which comprises abrasive means for abrading the sugar-cane into fibers, means for distributing and agitating the abraded material in a sugar solvent, and means for separating the resulting solution from the fiber pulp, said agitating means and separating means being ada ted to effect further separation of the fibers rom one another. I

12. An apparatus for therecovery of sugar andfiber pulp from sugar-cane which comprises abrasive means for abrading the sugarcane into fibers, and a plurality of means for successively subjecting the fibers to the action of a leaching liquid and separating them from the resulting sugar solution.

13. An apparatus for the recovery of sugar and fiber pulp from sugar-cane in accordance with claim 8. in which there is provided means for from each separator.

14. An apparatus for the recovery of sugar and fiber pulp from sugar-cane which comprises an abrasive surface for abrading the sugar-cane into fibers, a plurality of agitators for distributing and agitating the disintegrated fibrous material in a sugar solvent, a plurality of separators for separating the fibrous material from the liquid and delivering it to other agitators, means for conducting the solvent liquid from each separator separator to the next preceding conducting the leaching liquid,

except the first to an agitator which supplies fibrous material to the next preceding separator, means for conducting the ,solvent liquid from one of said separators to the I abrasive surface, means for conducting, said sugar solvent from said abrasive surface to the separator preceding the one from which is was taken, means for conducting the Sn. ar solution from the first separator, and means for conducting the fiber pulp from the last separator.

15. An apparatus for the recovery of sugar and fiber pulp from sugar-cane which comprisesan abrasive surface moving in contact with the sugar-cane whereby the sugar-cane is separated into fibers, means for separating the fiber ulp from the sugar solution, means for con acting the sugar solution to the abrasive surface, and means for finally separziting the sugar solution from the fiber 20 u p Iii testimony whereof I aflix my signature,

E. ANTONIO VAZQUEZ. 

